House, Senate budget talks nearly complete, but uncertainties remain

Saturday

Mar 5, 2016 at 8:42 PM

TALLAHASSEE | It is the final week of the legislative session, and the state budget must be finalized by Tuesday in order for a vote to happen on Friday, the scheduled final day.

House and Senate negotiators have reached agreement on the vast majority of the spending plan, but a few high-profile issues remain, such as tax cuts, employee pay raises and higher education funding. Each day, the list of things that are left to be done gets shorter.

"If you're someone who cares about agriculture and natural resources in Florida, it's a great budget," House budget chief Richard Corcoran, R-Land O'Lakes, said. "If you're someone who cares about health care quality and funding, I think it did very well."

Some of the decisions don't have anything to do with numbers, but the accompanying language in the budget that directions how certain dollars are spent. Late Friday night, lawmakers agreed to insert a provision in the Florida Department of Law Enforcement budget requiring its agents to investigate all instances when someone is killed or seriously injured by a law enforcement officer statewide.

Fifty-three people were shot by police in Jacksonville from 2006 through 2015, according to a Times-Union database. The FDLE doesn't investigate shootings involving Jacksonville Sheriff's officers. Since 2002, all Jacksonville officer-involved shootings have been deemed justifiable, First Coast News reported earlier this year.

The language requiring FDLE investigations was backed by members of the legislative black caucus. Rep. Mia Jones, D-Jacksonville, who is a caucus member, said the change cause the public to have a greater trust in whatever facts are discovered.

"It gives our local law enforcement the opportunity to be hands-off," she said.

Spending on K-12 public schools is largely agreed upon, but other issues - like whether to provide educators bonuses based on high school test scores and how much money to set aside in performance funding for public universities - are still being sorted out.

Lawmakers have agreed to use $478 million in state revenue in order to boost K-12 education spending while also providing homeowners a slight reduction in property taxes. In total, per-pupil spending is increasing by 1 percent to a base rate of $7,178.49.

"It is the largest per-student funding that has been offered in Florida's history," said Rep. Erik Fresen, R-Miami, and the House's education budget chairman. "I would consider that by itself a boon to school districts across the board."

But the state's teachers union said Florida ranks near the bottom in national rankings and noted that, after adjusting for inflation, the funding does not set a record.

"Today's dollar simply doesn't go as far as it did a decade ago," Florida Education Association President Joanne McCall said in a news release. "There's nothing 'historic' about this budget. It barely moves the needle."

The Legislature has also agreed on health and human services spending, including how to distribute $608 million in Low Income Pool, or LIP, funding. The federal government required the state to reduce the program by $400 million in the upcoming fiscal year and also created new requirements on how the money should be distributed.

That caused the state to come up with a new LIP formula that requires more hospitals to contribute local dollars in order to fund the program.

The plan spread out the burden of providing local funding, but also the benefits, to other Northeast Florida hospitals besides University of Florida Health Jacksonville.

"That will allow us to have a larger base, which will draw down additional federal dollars," Jones said.

Tony Carvalho, president of the Safety Net Hospital Alliance of Florida, said the federal reductions in LIP and other supplemental funding will impact UF Health Jacksonville. He predicts it will be mostly offset by a boost in state funding for hospitals that treat poor, seriously ill children through the Medicaid program.

"It will probably not be positive, but possibly only be slightly negative," Carvalho said.

Lawmakers are still finalizing the tax-cut package, but it is likely to include a three-day, back-to-school sales-tax holiday in August.

The package is expected to be much smaller than the $1 billion in tax cuts Gov. Rick Scott wants.

Lawmakers also did not put any money in the budget for Scott's economic development fund, although he requested $250 million.

Scott said last week he believes those decisions will have a negative effect because they limit his ability to encourage businesses to grow around the state.

"There are going to be individuals who will not have a job because of this decision," he said.

Legislators have also been working behind the scenes to obtain funding for local projects.

Northeast Florida organizations with money in the final plan include the St. Augustine Lighthouse and Maritime Museum and the Sulzbacher Center, which will receive funding to help build the Sulzbacher Village housing for homeless women and families.

Now, they just have to worry about Scott's veto pen.

Tia Mitchell: (850) 933-1321

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